Brokerages

On the record

December 30, 1992

WALL STREET brokerage houses raised a record $838 billion through stock and bond offerings in 1992, thanks in part to extremely low interest rates, according to a report released Tuesday. That total amount of underwriting was 42 percent higher than 1991's total, said Securities Data Co., a company based in Newark, N.J., which compiled the figures. The bottom line for these securities firms: record fees charged for the underwriting. Wall Street brokerage houses took in more than $6.7 billion in fees they charged clients in exchange for raising the funds through stock and bond sales - a 45 percent increase from last year.

HOTELS

MARRIOTT CORP., facing increasing pressure from institutional investors, said it is holding talks with bondholders to change the terms of its plan to separate its lucrative hotel management business from its real estate, airport and toll road concessions. The announcement was Marriott's first public admission that it hopes to compromise with investors. Bondholders filed lawsuits in U.S. Court in Maryland in October to block the restructuring, claiming the hotel company committed securities fraud by failing to warn bondholders of its plan when it sold $400 million of bonds in April. Marriott is based in Bethesda, Md.

RETAILING

SOME FAINTED and others were injured as frenzied shoppers in recession-weary Australia rushed to snap up post-Christmas bargains Tuesday, heeding Prime Minister Paul Keating's call to help the economy by spending. Some 10,000 people rushed the doors of Perth's Myers department stores at the opening, two days after a stampede shattered the glass doors of the Grace Bros. store in downtown Sydney.

ENTERTAINMENT

TED TURNER is bringing Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck to Moscow. Turner Broadcasting Inc., based in Atlanta, plans to launch the first independent television channel in Russia on New Year's Day. The channel, to be called TV6 Moscow, is a joint venture between Turner and the Moscow Independent Broadcasting Co. Eduard Sagalayev, the president of the Moscow Broadcasting Co. and former director of the state-owned Ostankino Television Co., will become the chairman of TV6.

GAS PRICES

THE PRICE of self-serve regular unleaded gasoline fell 2.9 cents per gallon this week to $1.103, the steepest price change of the year, the American Automobile Association reported Tuesday in its national survey. The average price of mid-grade unleaded also fell 2.9 cents, to $1.203 per gallon. Premium unleaded was down 2.7 cents to $1.291 per gallon. The federation of auto clubs is based in Heathrow, near Orlando.

ACROSS THE STATE

WAL-MART HAS applied for a permit in Crestview to begin work on what a company official

says will be its first Florida supercenter. A Wal-Mart supercenter is open 24 hours and includes a supermarket, photo processing laboratory, pharmacy, optical department, automotive center and other services. The Crestview store will be 141,000 square feet and will employ 350 people. A company spokesman said the Arkansas retailer plans to open several supercenters in Florida.